In the last few weeks, I've noticed that the old Straits Echo building at the junction of Penang Road and Dato Koyah Road has been undergoing restoration. I don't know who is behind it but the splendour of the building is back. After the newspaper closed in the 1980s, it was occupied by the Kayu Nasi Kandar group and for a while, I think there was even an outlet here but it folded rather quickly and the building was then left empty.
To see the building in this sparkling shape today brings some satisfaction although back in the old days when I was working briefly in the Straits Echo, it was far, far from this pristine condition. But at least it was occupied and functioning as a newspaper office. The printing press was at the back of the building and at night, the place was busy with people working, the machines printing and folding the next day's edition, local newsvendors waiting for their supply of the Straits Echo newspaper and vans waiting to collect the newspapers for delivery to places like Taiping, Ipoh and Kuala Lumpur.
As I write about these newspaper vans, I remember that in the mid 1970s when I was studying in Petaling Jaya, these delivery vans were popular modes of transportation for students travelling between Kuala Lumpur and Penang. Come night time in KL, we would go to, if my memory serves me correctly, Jalan Walter Grenier somewhere in Ipoh Road, and wait for these vans to arrive with their newspapers. For a small fee, we'd hop into them for the journey home to Penang, sleeping in them and awaking to stretch our legs whenever the vans stop in the small towns along the way to offload the newspapers. Journey's end for me was at Butterworth where I would then catch the ferry to the island and take the bus back to my home in Seang Tek Road to surprise my folks. Those were the days of carefree living.
#goodolddays #memorylane #reminiscing #nostalgia #retrorides #newspaperdays #studentlife #yesteryear
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